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rtw~~rrvr.~ Durham loop on fast track Wednesday, April 2, 2003 6:57AM EST By RAH BICKLEY, Staff Writer DURHAM -- Racing through the state legislature is a bill that could solve Durham's 30-year deadlock over a loop road that state transportation planners have pushed and local leaders and environmentalists have bitterly fought. The bill, which would establish a new route for aquarter-loop road across the northeastern part of the county, passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday and is slated for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee today. "It could be law in two weeks," said Rep. Paul Luebke of Durham, one of the county's four state representatives who are pushing an identical bill to the Senate bill that passed Tuesday, sponsored by Durham Sens. Wib Gulley and Jeanne Lucas. The Senate bill enshrines in state law a new route, called the Northern Durham Parkway, which was hammered out over months in a compromise between Durham leaders and residents and state transportation planners. The Northern Durham Parkway arcs eastward from Roxboro Road, which bisects the county north to south, turns south to cross Interstate 85 and continues down to I-540. "Boy, is that great news!" said Ellen Reckhow, chairwoman of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, when she learned of the Senate vote. Gulley's bill amounts to a list of improvements that will relieve traffic congestion in northern and eastern Durham, she said. It is to be built in seven segments, in a specific order. The first segment to be built under the compromise is the East End Connector, aone-mile segment connecting U.S. 70 to the Durham Freeway. It would provide a quick route bypassing downtown on the way from northern Durham County to Research Triangle Park and I-40, supporters say. The bill erases the old, long-resisted route called Eno Drive, which drew a semicircle around the top of the county, starting from U.S. 70 in the east and ending in Orange County in the west. The northern part of Eno Drive went close to the Eno River -- too close for the taste of the Eno's defenders in the Eno River Association, who said the road would harm the river, its tributaries, the park, wildlife and nearby neighborhoods. "I think it's the solution that's going to provide the best traffic benefit for the least environmental impact," said Don Moffitt, association president. The original Eno Drive loop road was mandated by an earlier law that decreed that Durham should have one of seven loop roads in the state. But the drawn-out fight over the state-drawn route versus other routes preferred by residents kept the issue up in the air and jeopardized the millions in state highway money that came along with it. The bill, Reckhow said, "will sign, seal and deliver the compromise and move the project forward." A© Copyright 2003, The News & Observer Publishing Company. All material found ortrianole.com (including newsobserver.com, carvnews.com, cha~elhillnews.com, smithfieldherald.com, and easternwakenews.com) is copyrighted The News & Observer Publishing Company and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The News & Observer Publishing Company, Raleigh, North Carolina. The News & Observer Publishing Company is owned byThe McClatchv Comoany. BACK 1 of 1 4/3/2003 3:20 PM